Agencies grapple with water in Wildomar/Menifee

Two public water districts, with county and state support, are edging toward extending service to a neighborhood straddling the Wildomar-Menifee border that for years has been supplied by a small private firm.

Residents from the community of about 140 households north of Bundy Canyon Road have complained chronically about the poor quality of the well water and shoddy service provided by the County Water Company of Riverside.

The Elsinore Valley and Eastern municipal water districts, whose jurisdictions surround the neighborhood, have agreed to provide service there as long as they can receive outside financing for the transition. How to go about the takeover, however, is proving to be complicated.

To that end, county Supervisor Kevin Jeffries has called a meeting among representatives of all the relevant government agencies on Monday in Riverside.

"Basically, my goal is to get everybody focused on the same page and on what we have to accomplish in order to have this private water company dissolved," Jeffries said in a recent interview.

In his view, the biggest obstacle is the threat of lawsuits from residents claiming to have been harmed by contaminated water.

"Every public entity is afraid of huge lawsuits the minute they take over the company," he said. "No public agency wants that liability and that's our biggest challenge. That's what we're trying to figure out."

The company, owned by a couple from Orange County, is a vestige of earlier days in the state's history before water utilities became a government function. County Department of Environmental Health officials over the last decade have warned residents there not to drink the water because of the extremely high level of nitrates. And residents say even that nonpotable supply is unreliable.

Yet, the owners failed to take advantage of an offer of a grant from the state Department of Public Health to fix the company's failing infrastructure. That led county and state representatives to explore the possibility of bringing the community into the systems of the public water agencies.

The agencies came up with a plan for the transition that has received the state's support as well as that of the water company owners, said Steven Williams, the Riverside district engineer of the state department's drinking water program.

State public health "continues to meet with (the districts), County of Riverside DEH and others to resolve the CWC's long-standing water quality and water supply issues," Williams said in an e-mailed response to a reporter's questions.

He said the consolidation plans "are acceptable and should provide a reliable, cost-effective, long-term solution to the current water quality and water supply problems."

Also, he said the state has identified funding for the project, which involves replacing the county water system with reliable pumps and pipes at a cost of millions of dollars.

Elsinore Valley recently made the first move in preparing for the transition when the district board approved the purchase of a $30,000 booster pump that would provide a temporary connection from a nearby pipe to the neighborhood until the full project is completed several years down the road.